The Market Report

Daily Table Grocery Open: 2023-2025 Owner:  nonprofit Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  135 Lafayette St, Salem, MA Photographed:  March 29, 2025 Previously, we've spent some time checking out nonprofit Daily Table Grocery locations in Boston and Cambridge, and now it's time to see the shortest-lived location. The roughly 6000 square foot Salem Daily Table opened in September of 2023 , closing with the rest of the locations in May 2025. The Salem store, like the others, was small but bright and clean with a simple selection of low-priced foods including a produce department as the centerpiece. The store was oriented with the registers at the right side, next to the parking lot, and groceries on the front wall with produce and a few aisles in the middle. Dairy, frozen, and cold cuts/prepared foods lined the left-side and back walls of the store. As you can see, the store is small and simple but bright and clean. It was a good concept and goo...

Daily Table Grocery Open: 2021-2025 Owner:  nonprofit Previous Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  none Location:  684 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA Photographed:  November 2, 2024 and November 1, 2025 Daily Table was an innovative but ultimately ill-fated approach to nonprofit grocery stores in the Boston area, starting in Dorchester and later expanding to other locations. A location at Cambridge's Central Square had only opened in 2021, closing down in the spring of 2025  citing rising food costs and other challenges. Here are some pictures from just about three weeks ago of the now-closed store. The interior has been cleared out in anticipation of a new, non-grocery tenant coming in, according to someone I know who lives in Cambridge. Central Square also previously had a small natural food coop , and still has an H Mart and a Whole Foods, which is Monday's post!

Now we're going to check out a few independent grocers in Roxbury, starting with one at the northern end of the neighborhood just a couple blocks from Tropical Foods ! Roxbury Daily Table Grocery Open:  2018-2025 Owner:  nonprofit Previous Tenants:  non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  none Location:  2201 Washington St, Roxbury, MA Photographed:  June 2, 2019 We've seen Daily Table locations in Dorchester and Mattapan , but after opening their Dorchester location in 2016, they opened up here in Roxbury in a small storefront in 2018. The store looks similar inside but is a bit smaller, clocking in at just under 3000 square feet. It closed with the rest of the Daily Table locations in May. Just south of here is a new independent grocer that I haven't gotten to visit yet called Nubian Markets , a small specialty supermarket and cafe that specializes in African foods .

Daily Table Grocery Opened: 2015-2025 Owner:  nonprofit Previous Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  none Location:  450 Washington St, Dorchester, MA Photographed:  June 15, 2019 and July 6, 2024 A couple weeks ago, I posted a look at the short-lived Daily Table Grocery in Mattapan . The nonprofit grocer didn't make it there, but here in Dorchester, the original store was in business for ten years before closing last month . The innovative nonprofit grocer format was developed in 2015 by Doug Rauch, the founder of Daily Table and former president of Trader Joe's. That was the year he opened this store , a roughly 9500 square foot supermarket selling donated and near-expiration food dirt-cheap. That's essential in a state and city where cost of living is famously high. Dorchester is one of the lower-income neighborhoods of Boston. The store didn't feel exactly like a typical discount grocery store, and that's partially because the assortment ...

Daily Table Grocery Open:  2023-2025 Owner:  nonprofit Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  474 River St, Mattapan, MA Photographed:  July 6, 2024 There have been a few efforts around the country to start nonprofit grocery stores. There a few models that have worked , but it's still a relatively new, somewhat unproven approach. In 2015, former Trader Joe's president Doug Rauch started a nonprofit grocer in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood ( paywall ), and Daily Table has since opened locations in Roxbury and here in Mattapan , along with locations outside of Boston in Cambridge and Salem. While the other stores made it longer, closing just last month , the Mattapan store pulled the plug sooner and closed just two years after opening. Daily Table said the 3,000 square foot store was receiving as little as 70% less traffic than other locations. I did get the chance to visit, though, in the summer of 2024. The Daily Table stores were an unusu...